I've been kind of hoping someone else would post in this thread before me because I didn't want the first "review" to be mine, but at this point it seems like I'm the only one who bought this
(I don't mean to be so critical here, but I really didn't enjoy the first two stories)
Anyhoo, the "review":
The Wreck was, sadly, very aptly named. I accurately predicted the outcome of practically every major decision any of the characters made. I honestly don't think I'd have expected it to have played out differently even if the crystals weren't influencing their minds. Everybody acted exactly how a person in this sort of story is stereotyped to act, with the possible exception of Christina herself, who barely bothered to actively do anything despite clearly being aware of what was going on. It was initially frustrating, but then I just got bored and stopped caring.
Outback might have worked better for me if I wasn't Australian. The whole thing was so cliched "Australian", and cliched Australia is nothing like how it actually is (well, from my personal experience, and I've lived here since birth for 23-and-a-half years). I honestly don't think I've ever heard anyone in my life use the word "strewth", for instance. And as for mango Tim Tams, I actually had to Google whether or not they even existed (and having consulted with most of my family, none of them knew it was real flavour either!). And "a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock" is definitely not something I'd expect anyone here to say... Ignoring all that though (as best I can, though I know it'll have influenced my opinion regardless), the story itself didn't do a lot for me. Eugenia's fate felt like it came from nowhere and was dealt with so quickly I never really had much time to take in what had happened before it was over (not that we'd spent enough time with her to care about her anyway). With both this and
The Wreck, they felt like stories written purely for the sake of existing, not so much because there was actually an interesting story to tell.
I did enjoy
Long Shot though! It felt a lot more like the sort of stuff we got in the first box set, and that's what I was expecting to get more of in this one (maybe that was me setting the wrong expectations). The characters were acting intelligently and, more importantly, we were given reasons to care about them. I wouldn't say the story was amazing, but it
fun, and that's what I'd come to expect from the
Lady Christina range. Should there be more, I hope they're more in this vein!